Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to wireless networks, and more specifically to adjusting operating windows of a dual-mode device operating as an access point and a wireless station in time division multiplexed manner.
Related Art
An access point (“AP”) refers to a switching device, which receives packets from a wireless station and forwards the packet to or towards a target device. A wireless station (“station”) on the other hand is the source or destination in the wireless network (e.g., WLAN) of such packets. The target (or destination) device is often another station in the same wireless network, though it can be a device connected through the Internet via the access point. The access point communicates with the wireless devices using protocols such as those defined according to IEEE 802.11 standards.
In a typical implementation, the AP and the station are separate devices in the wireless network. However, the AP and the station may also be implemented in a single device, referred to as a dual-mode device. The dual-mode device supports the execution of the AP and the station as two different modes within the single device. Such dual-mode of operation may be based on time division multiplexing (TDM), implying that the shared wireless medium is operated in station mode and AP mode in alternate non-overlapping durations, as is well known in the relevant arts.
The dual-mode device can operate in accordance with TDM by executing separate operating windows for the corresponding modes, during which time corresponding signals are transmitted. Thus, each of the AP and station modes has a corresponding operating window. An operating window refers to a time duration in which a single mode of the dual-mode device operates, marked by start and end boundaries.
There may be a general need to adjust operating windows of dual-mode devices, typically to ensure that packet transmissions are not lost at the receiving device. Adjusting implies modifying the time duration, i.e., the start and/or end boundaries, of the operating windows.
Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to techniques for adjusting operating windows of a dual-mode device operating as an access point and a station in time division multiplexed manner.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.